Author: Gurminder Bhogal (Music)

I conceived of Healing Minds and Bodies through Music as an upper-level seminar for all students interested in thinking about how the mind and body engage with sound, especially with regards to wellness and healing. The students who found their way into the course were from unique backgrounds: environmental studies, neuroscience, Africana studies, psychology, linguistics, music, among many. Each class began with a 10-minute meditation/exercise after which we would dive into a discussion of the readings and assigned audio/video materials, still seated on our yoga mats. 

The highlights of the course were class visits from pioneers in this area of research: psychiatrists and neuroscientists from Harvard Medical School and Yale Medical School, practitioners of South Asian and Afro-diasporic sonic traditions, Tibetan Buddhist sound bowl healers. The music department even arranged a special concert featuring a sitar and tabla player to support and enrich our engagement. Our learning experience was multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and hands-on. Through the semester we were submerged in all kinds of literature: scholarly, non-specialist, scientific (challenging for those of us not trained in neuroscience, like myself), philosophical (also challenging in its own ways). 

Through discussion and writing reflections, we interrogated ideas we had encountered through writing and sound. Each student produced an outstanding final project that was unique and ambitious; I know much of this research will make an impact across several fields in the years to come: medicine, sound therapy, music composition, dance, technology. I am very grateful to the TSSL for this opportunity and to the students who made this seminar so very special.